California investors pay $95M for UES rental tower

The multi-family investment firm Carmel Partners purchased a 163-unit residential rental building on the Upper East Side from the property’s developer for $95 million, industry sources said. It was the second acquisition in Manhattan for the San Francisco, Calif.-based firm, which owns properties in six states and Washington, D.C.

Carmel Partners closed yesterday on the purchase of the Electra at 354 East 91st Street at the corner of First Avenue. The company purchased the property from Forkosh Development Group, several industry sources said.

Developer Alex Forkosh’s Forkosh Development completed the 22-story tower in 2003. It has about 144,000 square feet of residential space and 8,902 square feet of retail space, figures from PropertyShark.com show. A Duane Reade drug store occupies the retail. The sale price translates to about $582,822 per residential unit.

The purchase comes as Manhattan apartment rental rates continue to break records, even as vacancy rates nudged up in July, the most recent data from brokerage Citi Habitats shows.

Christopher Beda, senior managing partner and chief investment officer for Carmel, declined to comment. Forkosh was not available for comment, a representative at his company said.

Forkosh Development was represented by Daniel Messing and Steven Forkosh (son of Alex Forkosh) at the Soho-based Portman Realty. It was Portman Realty’s largest sale since it was founded a year and a half ago, a review of industry records show. A representative from Portman said the company declined to comment.

The doorman building, with studio, one-, two- and three-bedroom units, has listings for one-bedrooms between $2,995 and $3,595 per month, information from Streeteasy.com shows.